“In 2001, the international community endorsed the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The commitment to the MDGs represented a determination to make significant improvements in the health status of the world’s population and recognised that the burden of illness and disease was not equally distributed. Major gaps existed in the health status and life expectations between the wealthy and the poor, between the developed and developing nations, between men and women and between rural and metropolitan residents.”

“Ten years on, significant gains have been made, with the 2009 evaluation report highlighting improvements in regards to key health interventions such as malaria and HIV control and measles immunisation (UN, 2010). However, the report also highlights yawning gaps between the health, well-being and life expectancy of different groups of people.”

“The ability to access services is key. Access to services may be limited by cost, by language, by proximity, by policies and practices that make a service culturally inappropriate, by poor quality, or simply by lack of availability or explicit rationing policies.

“It is also important to recognise that health is not merely a commodity produced by health services. Health is socially determined, as well as being influenced by genetics and environment. The ability to achieve good health or, conversely, the risk of suffering ill health, is affected by socio-economic status, geography, labour market participation, education, gender, sexual preference and a host of other elements that impact, both directly or indirectly on one’s ability to achieve and maintain good health.”

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Acknowledgement of Traditional Land

We would like to acknowledge this sacred land on which the Wellesley Institute operates. It has been a site of human activity for 15,000 years. This land is the territory of the Huron-Wendat and Petun First Nations, the Seneca, and most recently, the Mississaugas of the Credit River. The territory was the subject of the Dish With One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant, an agreement between the Iroquois Confederacy and Confederacy of the Ojibwe and allied nations to peaceably share and care for the resources around the Great Lakes.

Today, the meeting place of Toronto is still the home to many Indigenous people from across Turtle Island and we are grateful to have the opportunity to work in the community, on this territory.

Revised by the Elders Circle (Council of Aboriginal Initiatives) on November 6, 2014

In the spirit of equity and inclusion, if we can improve on this statement, please contact us. Thank you.